Book Review: The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

Title: The Hallowed Ones

Author: Laura Bickle

Series: The Hallowed Ones #1

Genre: Horror YA, Paranormal YA, Post-Apocalyptic YA

Amazon | Goodreads

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Release date: September 25, 2012

Source: Bought

Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

Summary: Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Advertisement

Top Ten Tuesday (53)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Books of 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

***

Excuse Me While I Fangirl: RIP Merlin

Like all fans of the AWESOME tv show, Merlin, I was super sad last night when I saw the news that this season–currently airing in the UK, but coming to SyFy here in the states in January–is going to be the last one. WAAAAAHHHH!!! So sad! This just means that I’m going to have high hopes when new episodes start here for something EPIC and MIND-BLOWING.

In honor of our fearless king and his wizard, as well as my abiding love of superheros, I found these pics of Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, and the rest of the major knights photoshopped all artsy-fartsy as The Avengers. The only blemish is that they couldn’t find an Avenger counterpart for Guinevere. Alas.

Happy trails to you, friends. Keep fighting the good fight.

Sir Percival as Thor

Sir Elyan as the Hulk

Sir Leon as Hawkeye

Sir Gwaine as Iron Man

Morgana as Black Widow

King Arthur as Captain America

Merlin as Loki

*I have no actual idea where these images came from initially, but I found them (in these sizes, unfortunately) on Tumblr.

In My Mailbox (53) / Stacking the Shelves (8)

Week of November 24, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Got some pretty sweet books this week, and some excellent deals for my kindle, too! HOLLA!

FOR REVIEW

Amazon | Goodreads

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (February 5, 2013 from Roaring Brook Press). I’ve been really looking forward to reading this book from Marcus Sedgwick, despite never having read any of his work so far. Because this one sounds so freaking intriguing: it’s basically the story of these two souls, I guess, who keep finding eachother in different bodies/incarnations throughout time. There’s paranormal biz, romance, family issues and pretty much who knows what else. At least I think MIDWINTERBLOOD is about these things. I don’t know if I could describe it any differently. Thanks, Roaring Brook for the ARC!!!

BOUGHT

So Close To You: So Close To You #1 by Rachel Carter. (Amazon | Goodreads)

Guys, Harper has some pretty awesome e-books on sale over Amazon way right now, and this one is just an example (more to follow, though). For $2.99, I snagged this book about some science experiment gone haywire, disappearing people, time travel, etc. It sounds pretty great, and at that cheapo price? I’ll definitely give it a whirl.

Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer. (Amazon | Goodreads)

I love stories like this one, friends, about girls (or anyone, for that matter) coming out of their shells. It always leads to several things: One, some heartwarming moments; two, AWKWARDNESS; three, great new experiences and realizations that there are benefits to putting yourself out there. This one sounds cute and fun.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley. (Amazon | Goodreads)

Friends, Susanna Kearsley is one of those authors whom I’ve read only once, but I really enjoyed (THE WINTER SEA) and have always wanted to read more. As a fan of the Outlander books, I’m not surprised that I’m drawn to these books that combine time travel and historical fiction. MARIANA was the kindle daily deal yesterday, so I snapped it up.

Sanctum: Guards of the Shadowlands #1 by Sarah Fine. (Amazon | Goodreads)

Ok. Another book that I’m taking a flyer on because, one, it was cheap for my kindle ($3.99), and two, because it sounds INSANELY AWESOME. It’s basically about a girl whose bestie kills herself, and so said girl–Lela–decides that she’s going to go to the gates of hell to save her friend’s soul and encounters some nasty creatures who sound like Hell cops. Friends. This book takes place in Hell. PSH. I’m in.

Woot! Hope you guys love your hauls this week!

Thankful